IGRA continues to improve the AID (All Israel Databases). The databases that are included in the AID collection come from over 30 Archives. Some archives have graciously allowed us to share the images associated with the databases while others have not given us permission to do so. It is now easier to identify which databases have images available and which do not. We have added an “image indicator” to the result of those records with an image available.

The first line does not have an image available. The second line does.

If you missed the announcement – there have been recent additions to the AID collection:

IGRA is offering a special opportunity for new members. Anyone joining from now until the end of the year receives IGRA membership through December 2019! Membership dues can be paid through our website using PayPal or Credit Card (through the PayPal interface) or by sending a check to P.O. Box 9057, Even Yehuda 4050002, Israel.

Membership to IGRA has many benefits – including full access to all sections of our website (articles, videos, resources and databases), free entrance to meetings and reduced fees for events.

The Membership fees remain the same as 2018 – 150 NIS or $45 for an individual and 200 NIS or $60 for a couple.

The HESHVAN EVENT is happening soon – October 18, 2018 – at the National Library in Jerusalem. We hope to see you there.

Each year in conjunction with the International Jewish Genealogy Month IGRA hosts our Heshvan Event. Don’t miss your opportunity to meet up with IGRA members and others in the genealogy community, pay tribute to our fantastic team of volunteers, congratulate those receiving special awards and hear a variety of lectures.

Also note that we are offering a “behind the scenes” tour of the National Library. On the registration form it is necessary to designate your desire to join this tour and the language you prefer (English or Hebrew).

The schedule and descriptions of the lectures follow as well as a short introduction of our speakers. REGISTER TODAY to guarantee your place with us for a day commemorating “Communities That Will Never Be Forgotten”. Fee for paid 2018 IGRA members – 50 NIS; Fee for non-members – 70 NIS. (If you are not sure if you are a paid member, please send a message to: webmaster@genealogy.org.il and we will clarify your status and get back to you.)

*Volunteers receiving recognition will be sent a special registration code.

Recognizing that many of our members will not be in Israel at the time of the event we are hoping to record most of the lectures and make them available on our website at a later date.

The DNA of the Jewish People – Max Blankfeld (English)

Beginning in the 1970’s, many books and articles were written on the origins of Ashkenazi Jews. Some hypothesized that Ashkenazi Jews descended from an Eastern European kingdom that converted to Judaism en masse in the 8th century, thereby discrediting the Jewish people’s connection to the land of Israel. More recently, a handful of historians and scientists have followed the same hypothesis. Join us for a discussion about these claims and compare them to the genetic record.

MAX BLANKFELD, is a managing partner and the COO of Gene by Gene/FamilyTreeDNA. He was born in Germany, but soon after, with his parents, who were Holocaust survivors, moved to Brazil. After his graduation, he started and managed several successful business ventures in both in Brazil and the US. In 2000 he teamed up with Bennett Greenspan, a long-time friend and business partner, at Family Tree DNA, to start the pioneer direct-to-consumer DNA testing company.

Digital memories from Fez, Morocco – Einat Levi (Hebrew)

Following the story of the Jewish community of Fez, in the past and up until the present. A community that is reuniting digitally through Facebook groups.

EINAT LEVI is developing Online learning processes and learning environments, and leads projects to strengthen the connection between Israel and the Diaspora at the Center for Educational Technology (CET). In addition, Einat is a researcher at the Mitvim Institute for Regional Foreign Policy Development, specializing in Morocco’s political and social arena and its relations with Israel. Since 2013 she travels between Israel and Morocco, and is engaged in consulting and developing partnerships between the countries in various fields, leading educational tours and delegations.

Einat deals with the digital documentation of the heritage of Moroccan Jewry, including the development of virtual tours in VR and Facebook documentation groups. Einat is a graduate of the ISEF Foundation – a leadership program for reducing gaps in Israeli society.

All Roads Lead to Eretz Israel – Rose Feldman (English)

Since the exile of the Jews from Eretz Israel with the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem, many have dreamed of returning to Eretz Israel, of making “aliyah”. Various types of records can be found that document the return of our ancestors over the last 200 years. Lists survive from the 20th century of immigrants including requests for visas, lists of exiles by the Turkish and deportations by the British. In addition, there are other types of documents, not directly connected with “aliyah”, that state where people came from and when they immigrated. Examples of available documents and resources will be shown in the lecture.

ROSE FELDMAN is in charge of developing databases for Israel Genealogy Research Association [IGRA]. She has lectured at various annual seminars and branch meetings of IGRA and IGS, at the Israeli Association for Archives and Information workshop, and the genealogy workshop of the Central Zionist Archives. In 2017 she was the recipient of IAJGS Award for Volunteer of the Year. Rose was one of the three coordinators of the Montefiore Censuses Project, has four Kehilalinks sites on JewishGen, operates two twitters for IGRA – Israelgenealogy and IGRA_Hebrew and IGRA’s facebook page.

From Family Research to Community Preservation, the Case of the Jewry of Nabel, Tunisia – Dr. Victor Hayoun (Hebrew)

Ralph Salinger began his family history in 1982, a time before there was internet, researching from just a few names then to a vast family tree today. Discovering that one branch of the Salinger family came from Vilkaviskis, Lithuania. he returned there in 2005 to find nothing of the once vibrant Jewish community. This presentation tells of the many good local people who have helped restore the memory, of contacts with over 250 Jewish families who have their roots there, and of the activities, many there, to restore the Jewish memory of the town and build the bridge between Jews, Israelis and Lithuanians.

RALPH SALINGER was born in London and grew up in New Zealand. He came to live in Israel in 1975, he is living in Kfar Ruppin. Ralph has spent over the past years twenty years researching his family’s history. Recently, Ralph has been involved in examining the history of Jewish Vilkaviskis and various other projects in Lithuania. He is an active board member of LitvakSIG and MACEVA.

“Kala” – Journey book about her family story – Ora Ahimeir (Hebrew)

The author describes in her book, the research journey after her mother life. From her birth at the “Hayishuv Hayashan” in Sefad, to her death in Jerusalem.

ORA AHIMEIR, author of the books “Kala” (Bride) and “Araratim”. She was one of the founders of the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, and served as its director for many years. In 2011 she received an Honor Citation from the city of Jerusalem for her contribution to the city.

Jon Stedman / Kelly Moore Adoption story – Karen Franklin (English)

The story of Jon Stedman and Kelly Moore involves mystery, bigamy, adoption and DNA. The secretive life of Jesse Oppenheimer, alias John Stedman (1887-1950) was unraveled using family research techniques that are useful to all genealogists, as well as DNA testing. Though his son Jon’s DNA sample was one of the first tested in 2000 (he was FTDNA’s first match), an upgrade in 2013 (four years after Jon died) helped an adopted woman, Kelly Moore, find her birth family.

The PowerPoint presentation will provide details about the role of DNA testing in her search, and the story of Jon’s collection and how it can be helpful to genealogists. The John Stedman Award presented annually by the IAJGS, was named for John Stedman, the man Kelly learned through our research was Kelly’s great-grandfather.

KAREN FRANKLIN, is director of family research at the Leo Baeck Institute and president of the Obermayer German Jewish History Awards. She has served as president of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies and chair of the Council of American Jewish Museums, as well as co-chair of the Board of Governors of JewishGen and chair of the Memorial Museums Committee of ICOM (the International Council of Museums). In 2012 Karen was awarded the ICOM-US Service Citation for her work in Holocaust-era property restitution.

IGRA is pleased to announce that it is expanding its activities in the Gush Dan area, with a series of lectures to be held at the Beit Shazar Library, 30 Yavne’eli Street, Givatayim. The inaugural lecture, Lost Identity and Other Research Stories will be presented in Hebrew on 5 September, 2018/25 Elul 5778 at 19:30 by Attorney Rony Golan. In his lecture, Attorney Golan will discuss the discovery of the identity and family of an orphaned Holocaust survivor child and other exciting and emotional research stories that illustrate various aspects of genealogical research.

Attorney Rony Golan is a professional genealogist who has been involved in genealogy for more than 30 years and is a lecturer in the Hebrew University Law Faculty, serving as legal advisor to the International Institute of Jewish Genealogy and the Paul Jacobi Center.

Beit Shazar is easily reached by public transportation from most parts of Gush Dan (buses 43, 55, 56, 57, 58, 64, 104, 168, 278, 472, 473, 477, to Aluf Sade/Korazin and a 10 minute walk from 33, 34, 39, and 63 to Haro’eh/Derech Rabin). For those driving, there is a parking lot (free from 5 PM) on Korazin Street, opposite Beit Wolyn. Street parking is mostly restricted to local residents. Yavne’eli Street is one block parallel to and behind the shops on Herzog Street.

IGRA is happy to announce that during the 2018 IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy that took place in Warsaw last week, a new strategic partnership between IGRA and JewishGen.org was announced. In the coming months both IGRA and JewishGen.org will allow searching records on each others’ web sites from a consolidated interface. When searching on one site you will be able to see if there are related records on the other site. We look forward to building on this partnership with JewishGen.org, and will have more to announce in the coming months as the new interface is implemented on our respective web sites.

Avraham Groll, Director of JewishGen, announcing new partnership with IGRA in Warsaw

JewishGen.org and the Israel Genealogy Research Association Announce an Innovative Strategic Partnership to Make Searching Israeli Records Easier and More Productive

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL / NEW YORK, NY — August 16, 2018

JewishGen.org, the largest digital repository for Jewish family history information in the world, and the Israel Genealogy Research Association (IGRA), Israel’s largest Jewish Genealogical Society, today announced an innovative strategic partnership that provides researchers with an easy access point to search more than one million records related to Israel.

Utilizing application program interface (API) technology, JewishGen and IGRA researchers will now be able to experience the ease of searching Israeli records located on JewishGen and IGRA from one single search interface.

Avraham Groll, Director of JewishGen.org, stated, “This new agreement complements our constantly growing collection of 25+ million records, augments our Israel related offerings with rich and diverse content, and strengthens the ability of researchers to connect with Israeli relatives, while exploring their current and pre-state Israel Jewish roots. We are very pleased to partner with IGRA in this way, which furthers our goal of working with societies, organizations and individuals throughout the world to make family history records available via JewishGen.”

Philip Trauring, President of IGRA, stated, “The goal of IGRA has been from the beginning to help all people researching their families who arrived in Israel, especially through the many records we have made available on our site. Partnering with JewishGen.org allows us to get closer to achieving that goal. JewishGen.org has long been the first stop for many Jewish genealogists, and it is gratifying to us that we are able to work closely with JewishGen.org to make our records available to a wider audience, and also to help our users see what is available on the JewishGen.org site.”

Both JewishGen and IGRA are committed to increasing their Israel related records from Israel, along with those from outside Israel. The new search capabilities, to be ready in Fall 2018, will be accessible via JewishGen’s Historical Database and IGRA’s All Israel Database.

###

About JewishGen.org
JewishGen.org, a proud member of the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust family, is the global leader for Jewish genealogy, and offers the largest digital repository for Jewish family history information in the world. Utilizing cutting edge technology, JewishGen provides access to tens of millions of records, and has developed an online community of nearly one million people. With an extensive knowledge center of unparalleled scope, JewishGen continues to focus on its core mission of preserving Jewish family history and heritage for future generations.

About the Israel Genealogy Research Association
The Israel Genealogy Research Association (IGRA) is the largest genealogy society in Israel, assisting members from Israel, and from many other countries, to research their family genealogy. IGRA focuses on providing to the public a wide variety of documents and material uniquely available in Israel, from the Ottoman period, through the British Mandate period, and on into the modern Israeli period. IGRA has built, in cooperation with more than thirty archives, an online database with more than 1.25 million records. IGRA is a member of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS), and received its Member of the Year award in 2015.